The Latest

This article looks at satisfying the principles of Configuration Management with varying degrees of tool support, which we classify from Version Control at one end, to true CM tools (and beyond!). Many agile developers restrict themselves to tools that are more on the version control end, so we aim to highlight the differences, and particularly point out certain features which can make your life a lot easier.

The defensive programmer may sometimes feel a touch of paranoia in his work, but it’s all part of the job. Writing code today that is robust and defensive will help protect against the potential errors of the unforeseeable future.

There are some large and complex tools out there for testers, but the ones Danny Faught uses most often are small and conveniently accessed by way of a simple, old-fashioned command line user interface.

We like to believe that the categories we assign to the world are real and the definitions we use draw clear boundaries, but how clear are they really? Brian Marick writes about the vital nature of examples, both in the realm of software development and in the larger picture of life.

Finding avoidable, show-stopping problems when performance testing late in a project is, unfortunately, not uncommon. But Scott Barber says you can save time and money on your software development projects by investigating performance early and validating performance last.

Feature-driven development (FDD) has the more traditional progression of a systems-engineering life cycle mode as compared to agile methods. It uses distinct phases in its iterations while still being highly iterative and collaborative. FDD does conduct up-front planning, design and documentation and relies very heavily upon domain modeling.

The subject of individual -vs- collective code ownership is often the bane of many heated discussions about code change authorization/access and concurrent -vs- serial development. Opponents of collective ownership often claim that it results in "no ownership" of the code and that individual code ownership is better for managing attempts at concurrent changes. Oppenents of individual ownership often counter by saying individual ownership inhibits refactoring and goes against the team ethic of XP and other Agile methods.